Mozambique’s new president faces daunting task of rebuilding trust amidst post-electoral turmoil

Daniel Chapo, Mozambique’s fifth president, inherits a nation embroiled in violent post-electoral protests that in three months have led to more than 300 deaths, and destroyed businesses and social infrastructure. 

The international community, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), has appealed for and mobilised efforts to resolve the crisis.

But the violent demonstrations against the 9 October election results, coupled with the police’s brutal response, are not the core of Mozambique’s problems. They are merely the tip of the iceberg of a divided and intolerant society needing reconciliation. 

The current crisis stems from former president Filipe Nyusi’s authoritarian rule, marked by systematic electoral fraud, the persecution and assassination of opposition leaders, and the exclusion of rival political parties and civil society from governance.

The problem is not, however, solely political. It is rooted in the political economy and unequal distribution of the country’s wealth. Indeed, the underlying causes of the nearly 10-year-old violent insurgency in Cabo Delgado – socioeconomic inequalities, political exclusion and elite corruption – may also be driving post-electoral violence across the country’s major cities.

Political elites, who are also economic elites or closely allied with them, have neglected most of the population, especially the young. While public school teachers endure months without salaries, students study without textbooks and doctors strike for more pay, the political class enjoys a luxurious lifestyle, distributing expensive gifts and vehicles among themselves.

This disparity has fuelled resentment among newly graduated but unemployed young people, informal traders unable to sell their goods on city pavements due to police extortion, and farmers whose lands are seized by mining companies while the government remains indifferent.

At election time in October 2024, citizens frustrated with poor governance voted overwhelmingly for the opposition presidential candidate, hoping to bring about change. But the process was neither free nor fair, with opposition votes altered in favour of the ruling party.

To make matters worse, 10 days after the elections, two opposition leaders closely associated with presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane of the Podemos party, were murdered in Maputo, allegedly by police operatives. Mondlane himself was deliberately targeted by riot police who fired tear gas grenades during a press conference in Maputo.

Selective assassinations of senior opposition members characterised Nyusi’s governance over the past decade, significantly contributing to the environment of mistrust that has led to the current post-electoral violence.

During widespread protests against the election results, at least 100 Podemos members were shot dead, most in their own homes. There are widespread suspicions that death squads were behind these killings. In one case in Cabo Delgado, witnesses said the killers of a local opposition leader wore uniforms used by the government-supported Força Local militia.

Stopping the post-electoral protests is vital, but Chapo needs to regain the trust of Mozambicans and repair a shattered society.

The SADC’s interventions to help resolve Mozambique’s post-electoral crisis must aim higher than resolving current clashes.